Secondhand smoke, also known as passive smoking or environmental tobacco smoke, is a mixture of sidestream smoke from the burning tip of the cigarette and mainstream smoke exhaled by the smoker. More toxic per unit of tobacco than mainstream smoke, sidestream smoke is the major component of secondhand smoke. At least fifty carcinogenic chemicals have been identified in secondhand smoke.

Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke experience immediate cardiovascular and respiratory damage. Long-term effects of secondhand smoke exposure include lung cancer and coronary heart disease. Expectant mothers, fetuses, and infants exposed to secondhand smoke face higher risk of adverse health consequences.

Smoke-free policies provide protection against exposure to secondhand smoke. Today, nearly half the world’s children are exposed to an unacceptable health hazard: tobacco smoke in their daily environment. To secure every child’s right to a healthy future, adult smoking should be highly regulated or eliminated, especially among parents and expectant parents. Exposure to secondhand smoke remains one of the world’s most critical environmental health hazards, leading all other lethal indoor air contaminants—including wood fires, asbestos particles, and radon.

Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work increase their heart disease risk by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer risk by at least 20 to 30 percent.

After the implementation of comprehensive smokefree laws in New Zealand, bar patrons are exposed to 90 percent less secondhand smoke.

Smoking in the home raises by 5 percent a child’s probability of visiting a hospital emergency room for a respiratory illness.

There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Breathing even a little secondhand smoke can be harmful to your health.

HARM caused by secondhand smoke

Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
Protect people from tobacco smoke
Offer help to quit tobacco use
Warn about the dangers of tobacco
Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
Raise taxes on tobacco

Building on the first-ever global public health treaty - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008 issued a comprehensive country-level report on the global tobacco epidemic. This report provides data from 179 countries covering 99% of the world’s population and sets baselines for implementation and enforcement of the six evidence-based and cost-effective policies of the WHO MPOWER strategy. Currently only 5% of the world’s population is fully protected by any one of the MPOWER interventions and no country implements and enforces all of them. By taking action to implement MPOWER, the leaders of governments and civil society can create the necessary environment to protect children from tobacco, help people quit tobacco use and save millions of lives a year.

The final version of the online Tobacco Atlas will have information on MPOWER steps related to the issues portrayed on each map.